South Korea: Kim Jong-Un bans cooking and sale of hot dogs with a penalty of time in labour camp

Dictator Kim Jong Un has declared that serving hotdogs was an act of treason, The Sun reports, amid the rising popularity of a South Korean dish inspired by the US. 

People caught selling or cooking hot dogs face the prospect of time in the country’s infamous labour camps, where it has also been decreed that divorcees could also be jailed. 

As part of the regime’s efforts to quash capitalist culture among citizens, it has forbidden the sale of budae-jjigae – a dish imported from its neighbour South Korea. 

The spicy Korean-American hotpot includes hot dogs or spam among its ingredients. 

It was born from meats discarded by US soldiers based in the region during the Korean War of the 1950s, with hungry locals using the items to create stews. 

The dish is believed to have crossed the border into North Korea sometime in 2017, decades after it was invented in the south. 

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported in November that authorities had now banned the dish, along with steamed rice cakes tteokbokki, also a popular street food in its neighbouring nation. 

A vendor in the northern province of Ryanggang told The Sun: “Sales of budae-jjigae in the market have stopped. 

“The police and market management have said anyone caught selling it will be shut down.” 

Reports also emerged in December of citizens claiming divorcees in North Korea faced one to six months in labour camps for their “crimes.” 

Divorce is frowned upon in the communist nation as it is considered an anti-socialist act, with the government required to sign off on any legal separations. 

A divorced woman who claimed to have served three months of labour in South Pyongan province told RFA that women received harsher sentences than men. 

“There are about 80 women, and 40 men imprisoned in the county labour training camp,” she said. 

“About 30 men and women were imprisoned due to divorce decrees, and the women’s sentences were longer.”